Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Northern City (Part 2 of 6)
Reposted from the web
Summary: Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Northern City is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: East City:. The account keeps its focus on Beijing Muslim History, Northern Beijing, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source. This is part 2 of 6.
Part 2 of 6
To ensure the quality of the pickles, we buy produce directly from farmers. We require specific quality standards and strict adherence to delivery seasons and times. For example, when making sweet garlic with osmanthus (guihua tangsuan), the garlic must be the purple-skinned, six-clove variety. Each bulb must be the size of a 'tiger's mouth' (the space between the thumb and index finger). It must come from places like Gaozhuang, Huangzhuang, or Landianchang in the Haidian District. The garlic must be harvested three days before the start of summer. To keep the garlic from drying out and the cloves from getting tough, we water the field one day before harvest. We pull the garlic from the ground at night while the soil is still damp. We deliver it to the Tianyishun processing plant at daybreak to ensure the best quality. Once the garlic arrives at the plant, workers immediately peel off two to three layers of skin. We put the garlic into vats right away. For every 100 jin of garlic, we use one jin of salt, diluted in water, and pour it into the vat until the water covers the garlic. After three days, we take the garlic out and put it into empty vats, with 300 jin per vat. We soak it in fresh cold water for another three days, changing the water once a day to remove the sharp, spicy taste. After three days, we take the garlic out and squeeze each bulb by hand to remove excess water. We put it into jars, preferably yellow wine jars. For every 100 jin of garlic, we add 40 jin of white sugar and five liang of salt, diluted in cold water, and pour it into the jar. Finally, we seal the jar tightly with oil paper and white cloth, then lay the jar on its side at about a 45-degree angle. Roll the garlic jar once every day and let the air out every three days, preferably at night. It will be ready to eat after one month.
We buy lettuce (wosun) during the summer solstice, specifically the green lettuce from Xiju Village in Fengtai District. This lettuce is green, crisp, and sweet, making the sweet sauce lettuce taste delicious.
We only buy cucumbers from Wuluju outside Andingmen around the time of the Limit of Heat (chushu), because the quality is best during this period. The loofah (sigua) must be emerald green, about six or seven inches long, and uniform in size. Do not pick the ones with big bellies. This variety makes for a crispy and sweet pickled cucumber when processed with sweet sauce.
During the White Dew (bailu) period, we buy iron-stem bell peppers (tieba shizijiao) from Shawo Village in the western suburbs. Once they reach the factory, we trim the stems, poke holes in them with bamboo skewers, and put them in cloth bags inside the sauce vat. Turn them three times a day, and they are ready to eat in ten days. These pickled iron-stem bell peppers are large and thick-fleshed. They are sweet, not spicy, and are a favorite pickle for Beijing households.
Sweet sauce radish is made using white radishes grown on the ground. The best ones are the "Er Yingzi" radishes (about five to six inches long and uniform in size) grown in Wangjiayuan in the eastern suburbs. White radishes from Shicun, Macun, and Puhuangyu in the southern suburbs are also very good. You must buy these radishes after the Autumn Equinox, not at any other time. To prepare them, sort out the large and small ones and pick only the medium-sized ones. Carefully remove the fibrous roots, wash them clean, and use five jin of salt per hundred jin of radishes to brine them, turning the vat four times over two days. After taking them out, use fifty jin of yellow soybean paste (huangjiang) for every hundred jin of radishes, turning them twice a day. After seven days, switch to seventy-five jin of sweet flour paste (tianmianjiang) and one jin of caramel coloring (tangse), continuing to turn them twice a day for about seven or eight days until finished.
For five-spice soy-sauce peanuts, the ingredients are peanuts grown in various counties in Hebei Province. The peanuts must be shelled by hand so the kernels stay large and uniform, without broken pieces or insect holes. To make it, soak the ingredients in boiling water first, then peel off the red skin by hand. For every 100 jin, use 60 jin of high-quality soy sauce and half a jin of five-spice seasoning (Sichuan peppercorn, star anise, fennel, cinnamon, licorice, and cloves). Add water and boil until 60 percent cooked for a crisp and delicious texture.
For sweet sauce walnut kernels (tianjiang taoren), the main ingredient is white walnut kernels from Shanxi, commonly known as lion's head (shizitou). To prepare, put the walnut kernels in a ceramic basin and soak them in boiling water twice for about 15 minutes. Use a bamboo skewer to peel off the thin skin, then put the kernels into a cloth bag and place them in a large jar. For every 100 jin of kernels, use 150 jin of sweet flour paste (tianmianjiang). Use a sauce rake to turn them twice every day, and they will be ready to take out of the jar after 20 days. After taking them out of the jar, add two liang of white sugar to every jin of walnut kernels, mix well, and they are ready for sale.
Famous Old Shops of Beijing: Tianyishun Halal Sauce Shop. Liu Yingjie (Wang Dongsi: The author was a long-time employee of Tianyishun from 1933 until retiring in 1974).
2. Xideshun Tripe King (Baodu Wang) at Dong'an Market
Beijing's quick-boiled tripe (baodu) is a halal snack. The stalls selling it are run by Hui Muslims. Each stall has a copper plaque with Arabic script and the four Chinese characters for 'Halal Hui Muslim' (Qingzhen Huihui). The tables and chairs in front are spotless, and even the small jars for seasonings are polished until they shine, which makes you feel comfortable. When you eat quick-boiled tripe, the seasoning is mixed on the spot, and the lamb tripe is sliced and boiled right when you order it. The Quick-Boiled Tripe King (Baodu Wang) in the open space in front of Runming Building at Beijing's Dong'an Market is very famous. The quality of quick-boiled tripe depends entirely on how it is dipped in boiling water. If you boil it too long, it gets tough and chewy. If you don't boil it long enough, it is also too tough to chew. The method is to use plenty of boiling water and only dip it briefly. It is all about getting the timing just right.
Cuisine of East Beijing by Wu Zhengge
Quick-Boiled Tripe King's own account
My father's name was Wang Fukui, and he was from Linqing, Shandong. My name is Wang Jinliang, and I was born in Beijing. My father came to Beijing when he was young to work as an apprentice at a mutton shop. Because he knew how to clean tripe, he later switched to making quick-boiled tripe (baodu). My father set up his stall at the same time as Ding Ziqing, the founder of Donglaishun. We all lived on Lumicang Hutong, including Ding Ziqing and his son Ding Futing. Ding Ziqing started his business selling yellow soil. He would pull a broken cart at the Chaoyangmen city gate and shout to sell coal soil, which was mixed into coal dust to make coal balls. Ding Ziqing started with a porridge stall and grew his business bigger and bigger. Later, he opened Donglaishun, Tianyishun, and Yongchangshun, and eventually his son Ding Futing opened Youyishun.
My father was hardworking, clean, and had a good temper when doing business. Customers would say, 'This old man is truly kind.' However, he was conservative in his thinking and had no desire to expand the business. By the time I can remember, my father had already earned enough money from his stall to buy a house. My father ran a stall at the Dongan Market. When I was a child, I helped him pick up tripe. We mostly went to a lamb shop on the north side of the road, opposite the sugar market outside Chaoyangmen. Chaonei Small Street was also full of lamb shops. We picked up goods from two shops. We didn't have to pay for the tripe right away; we settled the bill every nine days, which we called a nine-day cycle. I handled the pickup, and my father handled the payments.
Beef tripe (niu baiye) became popular starting with my father. Originally, those selling quick-boiled tripe (baodu) didn't have beef tripe; it was all lamb. But beef tripe is easier to chew, so anyone can eat it.
My father sold only the best cuts of tripe at Dongan Market, such as lamb tripe collar (yang du ling), lamb tripe leaves (yang sandan), tripe slab (duban), lamb tripe center (yang du ren), mushroom tip (mogujian), and esophagus (shixin). Besides his stall at Dongan Market, he also carried a shoulder pole to sell quick-boiled tripe at the sugar market outside the North Water Gate of Chaoyangmen. He would sell there until nine or ten in the morning, offering scraps and trimmings like tripe gourd (du hulu) and large grass sprouts (da caoya). His customers were poor people. He didn't separate the parts; he just grabbed a bowlful to sell, charging a few coins per bowl, and would come back with a few strings of cash. The money earned from that one trip was enough to feed our whole family for over ten days, so we could save all the money he made at Dongan Market.
By the time of the Japanese occupation, my father had saved enough to buy two houses by running his stall and living frugally. But he never wanted to open a shop. He said opening a shop meant hiring people and having high expenses, while carrying a shoulder pole meant he would never go hungry or thirsty.
From Cuixianzhai to Xideshun.
I am the third child in my family. Did you find out my nickname? That's right, it's Wang San'er. I have older sisters above me and younger sisters below me, seven girls in total. When we were little, my older sisters also helped out with the chores. When I was a child, I was beaten every single day and sent to apprentice at a lamb shop in Zongbu Hutong, near the south entrance of Chaonei Nanxiaojie, where I sold steamed fried dough (zheng'erzha) and steamed buns (baozi). The way Han Chinese sell steamed buns is different from how Hui Muslims call out their wares, and Hou Baolin got it quite right in his crosstalk performance. Hui Muslims call out their steamed buns like this: Hot lamb-filled buns here...
I was not born with the ambition to run a big business. One thing had a big impact on me. When I was around 20, Ding Ziqing, the manager of Donglaishun, held a wedding for his son Ding Futing at an inn outside Dongzhimen, and I went there with my father to give a gift, thinking about how he had once done business with my father, yet look at how successful his business became. The courtyard was huge. Under the eaves, there were gongs and drums everywhere, making a very lively noise, and celebratory banners hung all over the yard. We were poor, and the host kept fawning over the wealthy guests while ignoring us. From that moment on, I made up my mind that a person has to run a big business; running a small street stall just doesn't get you any respect.
When I was 20, an old man named Zhang who worked in the machine room at Peking Union Medical College Hospital used to come to my father's stall to eat tripe (baodu). He helped me get a job in the hospital's machine room, where I worked for two years. At first, I earned 12 yuan a month, and later it went up to 15 yuan. But a real man shouldn't just earn a fixed, limited wage. I left the hospital at 22 and went back to helping my father sell tripe. Look at that photo of me on a bicycle; it was taken when I was 22. After I quit the hospital, I sold that nice bike. If I had kept using it to pick up tripe, it would have been dripping water everywhere, and that would have been a shame for such a good bike. This photo was taken before I sold the bike.
I took over my father's business during the Japanese occupation. I was twenty-seven or twenty-eight then. I rented a space that used to be a barbershop. At first, I only wanted to sell tripe and named the shop 'Cuixianzhai' (Crispy and Fresh Studio), because tripe has to be both crispy and fresh. But later, I wanted to sell everything, so I turned it into a full restaurant. Once I made that change, I couldn't handle it anymore, and it closed down in less than a year. I rented the house to others to run a restaurant, but they lost money and closed down after two or three years. I took the house back and focused exclusively on tripe (baodu) for the second time, and that is when business finally picked up.
I ran the business from the time I was 30 until I was 40. Those ten years or so were the most successful period of my life. I started the Xideshun brand when I was 30. It was hard to register a new name during the Japanese puppet regime, so I bought the name from a sesame flatbread (shaobing) shop.
Famous people gathered at Xideshun.
Xideshun had four rooms in total. Two rooms faced the street, with one displaying the shop sign. There was a kitchen in the back, and three rooms were for guests. The room with the sign had three small square tables (sixian zhuo). The three rooms inside, including the kitchen, were separated from the outer room. Each inner room had four small square tables, making 11 tables in total, which could seat 44 people when full.
3. Jinshenglong Baodu Feng at Dong'an Market.
Not long after Dong'an Market opened, two Hui Muslims, one surnamed Wang and one surnamed Feng, set up tripe (baodu) stalls one after another. Although the two families were cousins and their skills were similar, the competition between them was fierce as each worked hard to create their own specialties and attract customers. Later, the tripe master Baodu Wang became famous first, and by the 1940s, he had grown his business into the Xideshun Lamb Restaurant, which occupied two storefronts. Baodu Feng, however, kept running a street stall until after the liberation, when he finally built a shed and hung up the Jinshenglong sign, continuing to specialize in tripe.
Selling tripe is hard work. Jinshenglong founder Feng Tianjie had his whole family, including his wife and children, working together. They bought the beef and lamb tripe from the slaughterhouses and lamb shops located between Chaoyang Gate and Dongbian Gate. The supply was not steady, and since every vendor competed to buy it, they often had to run around everywhere, begging others for stock and still coming up empty-handed. When they managed to buy tripe, they would get 40 to 50 pounds at most or 20 to 30 pounds at least, and with no transport, they had to carry it home in bamboo baskets on their arms, walking for miles. Cleaning the tripe was even tougher work. The Feng family lived in the slums of Nanheyan outside Chaoyangmen. There was a bitter water well nearby. For over thirty years, Feng Tianjie's wife went to the well almost every day with a bucket and a clay basin to wash tripe. She washed each piece of tripe seven times, turning it inside out three times and right side out four times, cleaning every leaf of the honeycomb tripe (baiye) thoroughly. In winter, the water was freezing cold, and her hands would turn red and swollen. Sometimes her shoes even froze to the well platform. After cleaning the tripe, she carried a basket and walked five or six miles to sell it at the Dong'an Market.
Quick-boiled tripe (baodu) must be fresh, the fresher the better. It was usually sold out the same day, within twenty-four hours. When the weather was warm, she had to keep the cleaned tripe on ice to stay fresh. In cold weather, she had to keep it from freezing. Because it was hard to store, the price changed. When supplies were low, she sold it sparingly, but when there was a lot or the weather was bad and customers were few, she had to sell it off cheaply. Every year after spring begins, there is less cattle and sheep slaughtering, so the season for quick-boiled tripe (baodu) slows down. In midsummer, lamb shops clear their counters and lamb stalls put away their carts. Sellers of quick-boiled tripe (baodu) have to close their pots and temporarily sell items like mung bean jelly (liangfen) and rice cakes (paigao) to get through the slow season.
Market Records: A History of Beijing Dong'an Market by Dong Shanyuan.
4. Tofu Pudding Ma (Doufunao Ma) at Dong'an Market
Tofu Pudding Ma (Doufunao Ma) is a family-run business. Ma Kuan originally carried his goods on a shoulder pole to sell them around the Xiagongfu area, running what was known as an eight-rope business. He entered the market after the 1940s and paid a high price to rent a prime spot of land. He opened Yuelaixuan, and because his tofu pudding (doufunao) was carefully made and delicious, he quickly earned a good reputation.
The Ma family's tofu pudding (doufunao) is made by grinding soy milk with a hand-cranked stone mill, filtering it through fine bean-cloth, and pressing the liquid out with a wooden bucket. He thought tofu made with brine had a strange smell, so he started burning gypsum himself to set the tofu. You must use low heat to burn the gypsum, and you have to get the timing just right. Every step, from soaking the soybeans to setting the tofu curd (doufunao), has strict requirements. The family stays very busy selling products made from about thirty to forty jin of soybeans every day.
Tofu curd must be topped with a good savory sauce (lu) to taste right. Yuelaixuan has always used lamb slices and button mushrooms (koumo) thickened with high-quality seasonings for their sauce, and every bowl served must contain both lamb and mushrooms, plus soy sauce, chili, or minced garlic for a fresh and delicious flavor. Served with hot sesame flatbread (shaobing) baked fresh to order, it makes for a tasty and affordable everyday meal.
Market Records: A History of Beijing Dong'an Market by Dong Shanyuan.
5. Meat Pie Zhang (Roubing Zhang) at Dong'an Market
Summary: Beijing Muslim History: Old Halal Notes from the Northern City is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: East City:. The account keeps its focus on Beijing Muslim History, Northern Beijing, Hui Muslims while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source. This is part 2 of 6.
Part 2 of 6
To ensure the quality of the pickles, we buy produce directly from farmers. We require specific quality standards and strict adherence to delivery seasons and times. For example, when making sweet garlic with osmanthus (guihua tangsuan), the garlic must be the purple-skinned, six-clove variety. Each bulb must be the size of a 'tiger's mouth' (the space between the thumb and index finger). It must come from places like Gaozhuang, Huangzhuang, or Landianchang in the Haidian District. The garlic must be harvested three days before the start of summer. To keep the garlic from drying out and the cloves from getting tough, we water the field one day before harvest. We pull the garlic from the ground at night while the soil is still damp. We deliver it to the Tianyishun processing plant at daybreak to ensure the best quality. Once the garlic arrives at the plant, workers immediately peel off two to three layers of skin. We put the garlic into vats right away. For every 100 jin of garlic, we use one jin of salt, diluted in water, and pour it into the vat until the water covers the garlic. After three days, we take the garlic out and put it into empty vats, with 300 jin per vat. We soak it in fresh cold water for another three days, changing the water once a day to remove the sharp, spicy taste. After three days, we take the garlic out and squeeze each bulb by hand to remove excess water. We put it into jars, preferably yellow wine jars. For every 100 jin of garlic, we add 40 jin of white sugar and five liang of salt, diluted in cold water, and pour it into the jar. Finally, we seal the jar tightly with oil paper and white cloth, then lay the jar on its side at about a 45-degree angle. Roll the garlic jar once every day and let the air out every three days, preferably at night. It will be ready to eat after one month.
We buy lettuce (wosun) during the summer solstice, specifically the green lettuce from Xiju Village in Fengtai District. This lettuce is green, crisp, and sweet, making the sweet sauce lettuce taste delicious.
We only buy cucumbers from Wuluju outside Andingmen around the time of the Limit of Heat (chushu), because the quality is best during this period. The loofah (sigua) must be emerald green, about six or seven inches long, and uniform in size. Do not pick the ones with big bellies. This variety makes for a crispy and sweet pickled cucumber when processed with sweet sauce.
During the White Dew (bailu) period, we buy iron-stem bell peppers (tieba shizijiao) from Shawo Village in the western suburbs. Once they reach the factory, we trim the stems, poke holes in them with bamboo skewers, and put them in cloth bags inside the sauce vat. Turn them three times a day, and they are ready to eat in ten days. These pickled iron-stem bell peppers are large and thick-fleshed. They are sweet, not spicy, and are a favorite pickle for Beijing households.
Sweet sauce radish is made using white radishes grown on the ground. The best ones are the "Er Yingzi" radishes (about five to six inches long and uniform in size) grown in Wangjiayuan in the eastern suburbs. White radishes from Shicun, Macun, and Puhuangyu in the southern suburbs are also very good. You must buy these radishes after the Autumn Equinox, not at any other time. To prepare them, sort out the large and small ones and pick only the medium-sized ones. Carefully remove the fibrous roots, wash them clean, and use five jin of salt per hundred jin of radishes to brine them, turning the vat four times over two days. After taking them out, use fifty jin of yellow soybean paste (huangjiang) for every hundred jin of radishes, turning them twice a day. After seven days, switch to seventy-five jin of sweet flour paste (tianmianjiang) and one jin of caramel coloring (tangse), continuing to turn them twice a day for about seven or eight days until finished.
For five-spice soy-sauce peanuts, the ingredients are peanuts grown in various counties in Hebei Province. The peanuts must be shelled by hand so the kernels stay large and uniform, without broken pieces or insect holes. To make it, soak the ingredients in boiling water first, then peel off the red skin by hand. For every 100 jin, use 60 jin of high-quality soy sauce and half a jin of five-spice seasoning (Sichuan peppercorn, star anise, fennel, cinnamon, licorice, and cloves). Add water and boil until 60 percent cooked for a crisp and delicious texture.
For sweet sauce walnut kernels (tianjiang taoren), the main ingredient is white walnut kernels from Shanxi, commonly known as lion's head (shizitou). To prepare, put the walnut kernels in a ceramic basin and soak them in boiling water twice for about 15 minutes. Use a bamboo skewer to peel off the thin skin, then put the kernels into a cloth bag and place them in a large jar. For every 100 jin of kernels, use 150 jin of sweet flour paste (tianmianjiang). Use a sauce rake to turn them twice every day, and they will be ready to take out of the jar after 20 days. After taking them out of the jar, add two liang of white sugar to every jin of walnut kernels, mix well, and they are ready for sale.
Famous Old Shops of Beijing: Tianyishun Halal Sauce Shop. Liu Yingjie (Wang Dongsi: The author was a long-time employee of Tianyishun from 1933 until retiring in 1974).
2. Xideshun Tripe King (Baodu Wang) at Dong'an Market
Beijing's quick-boiled tripe (baodu) is a halal snack. The stalls selling it are run by Hui Muslims. Each stall has a copper plaque with Arabic script and the four Chinese characters for 'Halal Hui Muslim' (Qingzhen Huihui). The tables and chairs in front are spotless, and even the small jars for seasonings are polished until they shine, which makes you feel comfortable. When you eat quick-boiled tripe, the seasoning is mixed on the spot, and the lamb tripe is sliced and boiled right when you order it. The Quick-Boiled Tripe King (Baodu Wang) in the open space in front of Runming Building at Beijing's Dong'an Market is very famous. The quality of quick-boiled tripe depends entirely on how it is dipped in boiling water. If you boil it too long, it gets tough and chewy. If you don't boil it long enough, it is also too tough to chew. The method is to use plenty of boiling water and only dip it briefly. It is all about getting the timing just right.
Cuisine of East Beijing by Wu Zhengge
Quick-Boiled Tripe King's own account
My father's name was Wang Fukui, and he was from Linqing, Shandong. My name is Wang Jinliang, and I was born in Beijing. My father came to Beijing when he was young to work as an apprentice at a mutton shop. Because he knew how to clean tripe, he later switched to making quick-boiled tripe (baodu). My father set up his stall at the same time as Ding Ziqing, the founder of Donglaishun. We all lived on Lumicang Hutong, including Ding Ziqing and his son Ding Futing. Ding Ziqing started his business selling yellow soil. He would pull a broken cart at the Chaoyangmen city gate and shout to sell coal soil, which was mixed into coal dust to make coal balls. Ding Ziqing started with a porridge stall and grew his business bigger and bigger. Later, he opened Donglaishun, Tianyishun, and Yongchangshun, and eventually his son Ding Futing opened Youyishun.
My father was hardworking, clean, and had a good temper when doing business. Customers would say, 'This old man is truly kind.' However, he was conservative in his thinking and had no desire to expand the business. By the time I can remember, my father had already earned enough money from his stall to buy a house. My father ran a stall at the Dongan Market. When I was a child, I helped him pick up tripe. We mostly went to a lamb shop on the north side of the road, opposite the sugar market outside Chaoyangmen. Chaonei Small Street was also full of lamb shops. We picked up goods from two shops. We didn't have to pay for the tripe right away; we settled the bill every nine days, which we called a nine-day cycle. I handled the pickup, and my father handled the payments.
Beef tripe (niu baiye) became popular starting with my father. Originally, those selling quick-boiled tripe (baodu) didn't have beef tripe; it was all lamb. But beef tripe is easier to chew, so anyone can eat it.
My father sold only the best cuts of tripe at Dongan Market, such as lamb tripe collar (yang du ling), lamb tripe leaves (yang sandan), tripe slab (duban), lamb tripe center (yang du ren), mushroom tip (mogujian), and esophagus (shixin). Besides his stall at Dongan Market, he also carried a shoulder pole to sell quick-boiled tripe at the sugar market outside the North Water Gate of Chaoyangmen. He would sell there until nine or ten in the morning, offering scraps and trimmings like tripe gourd (du hulu) and large grass sprouts (da caoya). His customers were poor people. He didn't separate the parts; he just grabbed a bowlful to sell, charging a few coins per bowl, and would come back with a few strings of cash. The money earned from that one trip was enough to feed our whole family for over ten days, so we could save all the money he made at Dongan Market.
By the time of the Japanese occupation, my father had saved enough to buy two houses by running his stall and living frugally. But he never wanted to open a shop. He said opening a shop meant hiring people and having high expenses, while carrying a shoulder pole meant he would never go hungry or thirsty.
From Cuixianzhai to Xideshun.
I am the third child in my family. Did you find out my nickname? That's right, it's Wang San'er. I have older sisters above me and younger sisters below me, seven girls in total. When we were little, my older sisters also helped out with the chores. When I was a child, I was beaten every single day and sent to apprentice at a lamb shop in Zongbu Hutong, near the south entrance of Chaonei Nanxiaojie, where I sold steamed fried dough (zheng'erzha) and steamed buns (baozi). The way Han Chinese sell steamed buns is different from how Hui Muslims call out their wares, and Hou Baolin got it quite right in his crosstalk performance. Hui Muslims call out their steamed buns like this: Hot lamb-filled buns here...
I was not born with the ambition to run a big business. One thing had a big impact on me. When I was around 20, Ding Ziqing, the manager of Donglaishun, held a wedding for his son Ding Futing at an inn outside Dongzhimen, and I went there with my father to give a gift, thinking about how he had once done business with my father, yet look at how successful his business became. The courtyard was huge. Under the eaves, there were gongs and drums everywhere, making a very lively noise, and celebratory banners hung all over the yard. We were poor, and the host kept fawning over the wealthy guests while ignoring us. From that moment on, I made up my mind that a person has to run a big business; running a small street stall just doesn't get you any respect.
When I was 20, an old man named Zhang who worked in the machine room at Peking Union Medical College Hospital used to come to my father's stall to eat tripe (baodu). He helped me get a job in the hospital's machine room, where I worked for two years. At first, I earned 12 yuan a month, and later it went up to 15 yuan. But a real man shouldn't just earn a fixed, limited wage. I left the hospital at 22 and went back to helping my father sell tripe. Look at that photo of me on a bicycle; it was taken when I was 22. After I quit the hospital, I sold that nice bike. If I had kept using it to pick up tripe, it would have been dripping water everywhere, and that would have been a shame for such a good bike. This photo was taken before I sold the bike.
I took over my father's business during the Japanese occupation. I was twenty-seven or twenty-eight then. I rented a space that used to be a barbershop. At first, I only wanted to sell tripe and named the shop 'Cuixianzhai' (Crispy and Fresh Studio), because tripe has to be both crispy and fresh. But later, I wanted to sell everything, so I turned it into a full restaurant. Once I made that change, I couldn't handle it anymore, and it closed down in less than a year. I rented the house to others to run a restaurant, but they lost money and closed down after two or three years. I took the house back and focused exclusively on tripe (baodu) for the second time, and that is when business finally picked up.
I ran the business from the time I was 30 until I was 40. Those ten years or so were the most successful period of my life. I started the Xideshun brand when I was 30. It was hard to register a new name during the Japanese puppet regime, so I bought the name from a sesame flatbread (shaobing) shop.
Famous people gathered at Xideshun.
Xideshun had four rooms in total. Two rooms faced the street, with one displaying the shop sign. There was a kitchen in the back, and three rooms were for guests. The room with the sign had three small square tables (sixian zhuo). The three rooms inside, including the kitchen, were separated from the outer room. Each inner room had four small square tables, making 11 tables in total, which could seat 44 people when full.
3. Jinshenglong Baodu Feng at Dong'an Market.
Not long after Dong'an Market opened, two Hui Muslims, one surnamed Wang and one surnamed Feng, set up tripe (baodu) stalls one after another. Although the two families were cousins and their skills were similar, the competition between them was fierce as each worked hard to create their own specialties and attract customers. Later, the tripe master Baodu Wang became famous first, and by the 1940s, he had grown his business into the Xideshun Lamb Restaurant, which occupied two storefronts. Baodu Feng, however, kept running a street stall until after the liberation, when he finally built a shed and hung up the Jinshenglong sign, continuing to specialize in tripe.
Selling tripe is hard work. Jinshenglong founder Feng Tianjie had his whole family, including his wife and children, working together. They bought the beef and lamb tripe from the slaughterhouses and lamb shops located between Chaoyang Gate and Dongbian Gate. The supply was not steady, and since every vendor competed to buy it, they often had to run around everywhere, begging others for stock and still coming up empty-handed. When they managed to buy tripe, they would get 40 to 50 pounds at most or 20 to 30 pounds at least, and with no transport, they had to carry it home in bamboo baskets on their arms, walking for miles. Cleaning the tripe was even tougher work. The Feng family lived in the slums of Nanheyan outside Chaoyangmen. There was a bitter water well nearby. For over thirty years, Feng Tianjie's wife went to the well almost every day with a bucket and a clay basin to wash tripe. She washed each piece of tripe seven times, turning it inside out three times and right side out four times, cleaning every leaf of the honeycomb tripe (baiye) thoroughly. In winter, the water was freezing cold, and her hands would turn red and swollen. Sometimes her shoes even froze to the well platform. After cleaning the tripe, she carried a basket and walked five or six miles to sell it at the Dong'an Market.
Quick-boiled tripe (baodu) must be fresh, the fresher the better. It was usually sold out the same day, within twenty-four hours. When the weather was warm, she had to keep the cleaned tripe on ice to stay fresh. In cold weather, she had to keep it from freezing. Because it was hard to store, the price changed. When supplies were low, she sold it sparingly, but when there was a lot or the weather was bad and customers were few, she had to sell it off cheaply. Every year after spring begins, there is less cattle and sheep slaughtering, so the season for quick-boiled tripe (baodu) slows down. In midsummer, lamb shops clear their counters and lamb stalls put away their carts. Sellers of quick-boiled tripe (baodu) have to close their pots and temporarily sell items like mung bean jelly (liangfen) and rice cakes (paigao) to get through the slow season.
Market Records: A History of Beijing Dong'an Market by Dong Shanyuan.
4. Tofu Pudding Ma (Doufunao Ma) at Dong'an Market
Tofu Pudding Ma (Doufunao Ma) is a family-run business. Ma Kuan originally carried his goods on a shoulder pole to sell them around the Xiagongfu area, running what was known as an eight-rope business. He entered the market after the 1940s and paid a high price to rent a prime spot of land. He opened Yuelaixuan, and because his tofu pudding (doufunao) was carefully made and delicious, he quickly earned a good reputation.
The Ma family's tofu pudding (doufunao) is made by grinding soy milk with a hand-cranked stone mill, filtering it through fine bean-cloth, and pressing the liquid out with a wooden bucket. He thought tofu made with brine had a strange smell, so he started burning gypsum himself to set the tofu. You must use low heat to burn the gypsum, and you have to get the timing just right. Every step, from soaking the soybeans to setting the tofu curd (doufunao), has strict requirements. The family stays very busy selling products made from about thirty to forty jin of soybeans every day.
Tofu curd must be topped with a good savory sauce (lu) to taste right. Yuelaixuan has always used lamb slices and button mushrooms (koumo) thickened with high-quality seasonings for their sauce, and every bowl served must contain both lamb and mushrooms, plus soy sauce, chili, or minced garlic for a fresh and delicious flavor. Served with hot sesame flatbread (shaobing) baked fresh to order, it makes for a tasty and affordable everyday meal.
Market Records: A History of Beijing Dong'an Market by Dong Shanyuan.
5. Meat Pie Zhang (Roubing Zhang) at Dong'an Market
